A new Manhattan dance club called District 36 has been built around its sound system to deliver a dizzying mix of house and techno. Gary Stewart Audio (GSA) in association with RLA, designed the system around custom loudspeakers using 11 Powersoft K2 DSP+AESOP and four K6 DSP+Aesop Powersoft amplifiers, controlled by Powersoft’s Armonía Pro Audio Suite software.
‘We needed to move into a new power amplifier for this system and we auditioned seven different brands covering 15 different models,’ says GSA owner, Gary Stewart. ‘I was very discouraged until I heard the Powersoft amplifiers. The other amplifier brands had the power, but offered a dry, uninspired sound, while the Powersoft K series amps had a warm, open sound with enormous power. We build our own custom speaker systems and Powersoft amps really make them sing like never before. The District 36 system offers high fidelity at extremely high sound pressure levels.’
GSA is responsible for systems in some of the hottest nightspots around the world, including Zouk in Singapore, Sound Factory 2 in NYC, Vertigo in San Jose, and CR and Love in NYC.
The systems reaches a new high with the District 36, which uses four 12-feet tall by 8-foot wide GSA Ultima speaker stacks at each corner of the dancefloor. Each stack includes twin 18-inch subwoofers, a quad 15-inch cabinet, twin acoustic lens HF/UHF mid range horn loaded with two coaxial neodymium compression drivers and four GSA custom bullet tweeter arrays flown over the dancefloor.
‘While our GSA Ultima speaker stacks have found new sonic sparkle with Powersoft, sound is not the only benefit to this installation,’ continues Stewart. ‘When we were designing the system for District 36, the owner of the club explained that there was very little AC mains power available in the building to supply a sound system of this size. To bring in the extra power lines to supply a traditional amplifier package, it would have added cost in the US$60K range. By using Powersoft, the mains power draw was considerably less than a traditional design with the added benefits of taking up less rack space and requiring less cooling in the amp room. This appealed to the club owners for both savings on energy and green sensibilities, so there was no question on any level of using anything but Powersoft. How often can one find an amplifier that delivers cost-saving efficiencies while producing noticeably better sound. District 36 is our first design and installation with Powersoft, but it will not be our last.’
More: www.powersoft-audio.com
